Socialists in the EP strengthen system of financial supervision in Europe

In tough negotiations, S&D MEP Pervenche Berès succeeded today in reaching an agreement between the European Parliament and member states on an EU strengthened system of financial supervision comprising the necessary upgrade to counter money laundering. We made significant progress in adding Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors in the mandate of the European supervisory authorities (ESAs), as well as in protecting whistle-blowers. Good news also in the area of consumer protection, where we provided all the ESAs with a regime to prohibit toxic financial products.

Pervenche Berès, S&D Group spokesperson on economic and monetary affairs and rapporteur on the legislative package, said:

“The negotiations were extremely complicated because financial supervision goes at the heart of the nexus between European and national bodies. Member states instinctively defended the status quo and even tried to allocate back more powers to national authorities. But this is short-sighted and a recipe for disaster, as we have experienced over the crisis years. We simply rejected this stance and the temptation from some member states to strike a deal merely on the anti-money laundering provisions and instead fought hard to make a move towards more European supervision.

“We must have the courage to deliver, especially in times like these where European integration is under attack by nationalism and populism. We therefore promoted a reinforced role of the ESAs in shaping safe financial markets. To do this, we had to improve their governance by giving the ESAs’ chairpersons more leeway while ensuring that they are selected through a democratic appointment process, under strict principles including an assessment based on a gender balanced list of candidates.”

Note to the reader

The European system of financial supervision (ESFS) is composed by the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and three European supervisory authorities (ESAs), namely the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).